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In 1850, a 15 year getting on in years boy from London arrived in Experimental York Burg with $10 in his pocket. He develop a opinion as “pot walloper” or dishwasher at an upscale restaurant and began a lifelong passion with forfeiture dining. From this dark beginning, Fred Harvey would exchange the personality people West of the Mississippi dined, create a marketing tool that helped create the world’s largest railroad, protagonist women in the work weight, and establish an empire.
As Fred Harvey worked his habit west, stopping in Unknown Orleans, St. Louis, and Kansas Metropolis, he acquired apprehension of the restaurant industry. When he wasn’t on the floor waiting tables, he was asking questions of chefs and information the whole shooting match he possibly could down every circumstance of the industry. His target was to own his own restaurant, and in that endeavor, he accepted a lucrative placement as a traveling freight cause on the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Traveling conditions were frightful in the late 1860’s and beginning 1870’s. Trains were dusty and full of mice and flies. Sagacious travelers crowded their own picnic of fried chicken, hard boiled eggs, cheese and perhaps a percentage of cake. When that ran out, you were artificial to land the followers and shoplift your chances on whatever was at one’s disposal at the station puff pastry cheese sticks all recipes.
Along the way, anything was possible. At a-one, one could contemplate gamy, sharp coffee, brewed once upon a time a week. Stale foodstuffs was run-of-the-mill as well as GI distress and affliction from aliment, and the dismay of being hand behind in the medial of nowhere made travelers take in nourishment as sybaritic as reasonable, scrambling to pocket endorse on the train. Scam artists negotiated with railroad workers to con man travelers. Ahead of reaching a take a break, the conductor would steal reservations requiring a 50 cent deposit. When the queue arrived at the station, the commons would be served scarcely as the conductor called, “All Aboard!” As the travelers ran subsidize, the restaurateur would scrabble at the victuals back into pots in regard to the next discipline passengers and forgo the railroaders 10 cents per avert as their take. These conditions and scams made followers voyage dangerous to solitary’s constitution, and as he worked his modus vivendi = ‘lifestyle’ across the West, Harvey realized that there was a retail payment clean restaurants serving ethical food at rational prices along the line.
In 1875, he approached officials at the Burlington Railroad with his idea of chance restaurants at the cortege depots. Railroad officials had no consideration in supplying food and laughed him unlit of their office. But as he left-hand the office, one of the officials commented that he should make a proposal to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, which was the most rapidly expanding railroad in the West. Santa Fe liked the apprehension and a partnership was formed. Harvey opened the beforehand restaurant, The Harvey Firm, in Topeka, Kansas in 1875. It was an closest star, not no more than with travelers, but with local residents as well. Within 9 years, there were 17 Harvey Houses along the Santa Fe course, and the win initially restaurant “secure” was born.
Because of Harvey, his restaurants and the lightning-fast swelling of the West, Santa Fe became the original rider railroad, as travelers could be assured of chic meals in uninfected dining rooms. Harvey was a percipient negotiator. When he negotiated his defective covenant with Santa Fe, he obtained absolute rights to all restaurants along their line. Not alone did he secure exclusivity, but the railroad supplied the erection and property, passage in the interest of Harvey employees, and new laundry, gordon ramsey all baking recipes ice, heart, and prompt shipped in daily.
Harvey’s only disturbed was his wait staff. The waiters were undependable, coming to manoeuvre crapulent, picking fights, and destroying company property. No one civilized wanted to work loose West. Where could he pocket decent, dependable help? Women.
In the 1890’s, the only women in the West were either saloon girls or married women with families and farms. It was properly the Wild, Move West, full of cowboys, gunslingers, scam artists and roughnecks. An boorish purpose to be. So, Harvey did something undoubtedly revolutionary. He placed an ad in East Coast papers as a remedy for women 18 – 30 years of stage, winning, polished, and decent. Harvey offered area and committee, freed carriage passage, and wages of $17.50 per month. No experience necessary. Harvey wanted to edify them his way. But would they come?
They came like gangbusters. In the recent nineteenth century, opportunities for the duration of women were very limited. The only apt positions were as teachers, servants, dressmakers, or factory workers. Not not was being a Harvey woman an opening to grow into huge boodle, it was an possibility due to the fact that adventure. But being a Harvey girl was not easy.
The standards agreed by means of Harvey were rigid. Beginning, they were accustomed a 6, 9, or 12 month undertake during which every so often they were not allowed to marry. If they did, they would be financially penalized at hand half of their compensation and give up their journey privileges. The dormitories were exact, with a house mum overseeing the girls and a curfew of 10 pm every night. If you broke curfew 3 times, you were summarily fired and sent home. The training make was a grueling 30 days of culture rigid cleanliness, grooming and board maintenance without pay. The training interval was unaccommodating and stressful, but innumerable women spoke of how the ordeal gave them self-assurance and poise.
They were trained in the Harvey way. Because of the school schedule, timing was incredibly important. When the caravan arrived in the station, the first course was already on the table. United bit of skirt came result of and took sip orders as another was pure behind her pouring. A way of coffee cup placement was the key to communication. As the first line was being cleared, a boss would put one’s hands in with trays of hot entrees which would be served around the girls. Unstinting portions and seconds were the standard. And so was the timing. The trains alone stopped in search 30 minutes and Harvey provided a ladylike, delicious dining savoir faire on a schedule.
Cleanliness was also a indication to success. If they weren’t detailed, the girls were expected to be cleaning; their post, polishing polished or impudence, folding napkins or dusting. In offend of the dust and dirt of the West, Harvey Houses were known for their innocent tidiness. This included the girls’ uniforms. They were expected to be well-dressed, spotless and ironed. If they got stained during a scrape by, they were expected to exchange uniforms immediately. Gum chewing was sod on dismissal. Harvey himself would for floor inspections and closely perform a stainless glove test.
Harvey’s chefs were also the best. When Fred Harvey traveled, he would look over to lure away the chef anytime he had a excellent meal. He paid his people well and believed in the finest status ingredients. The chefs had the authority to manufacture their own menus and expend handsomely for supplies and produce. Not unequal to huge restaurants today, Harvey Houses had the outset acceptance and the best sell of heart and fresh vegetables. Hence, they had the skills to lend diners with earliest type meals.
Harvey was also a believer of promoting men and women from within. Many women started evasion as a waitress, became chairperson waitress, and some unruffled became managers. Another in the pipeline he emphasized veneration and respectability was in the prestige he chose during his wait staff. His girls were at no time referred to as waitresses. Rather, they were known via and proud to be called Harvey Girls. Being a Harvey Fianc‚e meant coolness, respect, and independence.
Fred Harvey invented the chain restaurant, but more importantly, he and his girls civilized the West. Not only did they provide a service to the travelers and the communities through their restaurants and stark air, they became the paradigm of courteousness and dining. Uncountable Harvey girls did descry marriage and adventure. Many had lifelong, fascinating careers in Harvey’s empire that would obtain been impossible stand behind East. Some paid in compensation college and went on to fit professionals in other careers. No stuff what paths they set up themselves on, the Harvey Girls became the matriarchs of the Customer Service.
When Fred Harvey died in 1901, his empire included 15 hotels, 47 restaurants, and 30 railroad dining cars. At its culmination, the Harvey Enterprise restaurants were the most wealthy in the surroundings, with 100 locations, and provided the Santa Fe Railroad with the marketing tool and stand for to behove the largest passenger discipline troop in the Combined States. During both World Wars, the Harvey Descendants was contributory in providing meals to the troops being moved across the rural area on trains. But the Wright brothers, the automobile, and the Serious Depression led to the demise of the empire. Fine dining and civility in the West are legacies that Fred Harvey and his Girls bequeathed us all.